Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James closes out win over Golden State Warriors, 4 lessons

If Rajon Rondo is the backup point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoffs, they won’t make the Finals. There we said it.

Rajon Rondo scored 11 points, grabbed four rebounds, dished out 4 assists. Let’s get that out-of-the-way. Now let’s deal with reality here.

If he’s the backup point guard in the playoffs, there is no way the Lakers go to the NBA Finals. Rondo is done. He knows it, the Los Angeles Lakers know it and Lake Show Life knows it.

Anthony Davis can make him relevant with plays like this when the team is up by 20 points.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1226351197042294784

For every play like this, he does dumb plays like this. Please click on this for evidence.

Rondo will continue to play locker room politics to rob minutes from other players that deserve playing time. The bottom line is, the Lakers offense gets flushed down the toilet when he runs the point.

Also, he is absolutely killing Kyle Kuzma‘s development. Kuzma doesn’t struggle coming off the bench. He struggles coming off the bench with Rondo playing point guard. Fans should start analyzing Rondo’s game like this. He’s blind in one eye and has LeBron and AD in the other. Good luck to the rest of the bench roster. You are going to have to get your numbers IN SPITE of this guy.

It is so frustrating to watch how Rajon throws his teammates off with his gather going to the rim, only to throw late passes to the corner while his teammates cut to the basket.

Speaking of Kuzma:

Kyle Kuzma scored 12 points (4-of-8 shooting) and had six assists. The assist total was the second-highest of the season. His highest total was seven against the Magic. He also had three steals which shows he was active and engaged.

His five turnovers are a problem, but he’s not the point guard with 10+ years experience like LeBron James and…oh forget it, why beat a dead horse.

The offensive reads made off-ball screens show growth for Kuz. A couple of months ago, he would be looking for his shot instead of letting plays develop like this one.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1226338294104936449

Notice that Rajon Rondo is not running the point at this time. Hopefully, he gets to play with another guard coming soon.

The Lakers bench scored 41 points in this game led by another strong effort from Dwight Howard. He scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 13 minutes. That amount of production in so little time is insane. Why he is not getting more time on the floor is another unsolved mystery.

The Los Angeles Lakers play the Phoenix Suns on Monday. This is a post-game upset alert. Blow it off if you wish. The Suns blew out the same Houston Rockets squad by 30 points on Friday night.